Breaking Up
by ReneeLover
Summary: Garret and Renee have to deal with Garret’s betrayal of trust after Mexico, in doing so a mugging comes in handy. Setting after Dead or Alive. Parts 3 of 3. Finished!
1. Chapter 1

TITLE: Breaking Up  
AUTHOR: Mel  
PART: 1/3  
RATING: M  
PAIRING: Renee/Garret  
GENRE: Drama  
SPOILER: Setting after "Dead or Alive"  
CONTENTS: Garret and Renee have to deal with Garret's betrayal of trust after Mexico, in doing so a mugging comes in handy  
DISCLAIMER: Tim Kring is the boss – I'm just a copy cat  
COMMENTS: My first happy ending of a Garret/Renee story. I'm very proud of it.

**Breaking Up**

**Part 1**

A thudding echoed through her head again and again during her dream, made her toss and turn in her sleep until she opened one eye and glanced scowlingly at the digital numbers on her alarm clock. But where it should had been was only darkness. Who had turned off the electricity? And...why did she have such a splitting headache?

There was this noise again. This time loud and clear. She hadn't realized until now that it was someone knocking on her door and the knocking got louder and more urgent. Who was so crazy and brave to wake her up in the middle of the night? When it knocked again, she got up, but bumped her knee painfully on something. Glass rattled, when her wine glass hit the empty red wine bottle. All of sudden she remembered where the headache was coming from...

"Damn, that hurt...," she cursed loudly and tried to orientate herself in her apartment. Just great, she had actually fallen asleep on her couch. But that was no surprise; after all she had sat half the night in his office and waited for his return. The last hours there she had spent finding answers for all the people towards who she had to justify his behavior. She hadn't liked the result. And completely exhausted she had simply fallen asleep.

She groped her way through her hallway, glanced through the spy hole and heaved a frustrated sigh. That couldn't be true. However, she opened the security locks and opened the door a crack.

"Garret?"

"Renee," as he stood there with an insecure look on his face and with tired eyes she couldn't help but think about a little school boy who knew that he had misbehaved but didn't know exactly what he'd done wrong. But that only made her angrier. That was just typical for Garret...did whatever he thought was right without taking other people's feelings into consideration. That is, to be more precise, hers. She hoped that, in case he was here to apologize for his actions, he was capable of giving her good reasons for them. Reasons that wouldn't make her look completely stupid in front of the court and the mayor tomorrow. But when she thought about it she didn't even want to talk to him. She didn't even know why she had opened the door.

"May I come in?", there was also insecurity in his voice and it only needed a short glance into Renee's tired eyes in order to know the answer before she said it in her usual aggressive way.

"No."

Silence unfolded between the two of them and not for the first time they both felt that they had come to a point in their relationship where it got more and more difficult to find, to trust and respect each other again.

"If you want the neighbors to hear what I have to say to you…"

"They won't hear anything, because I go back to sleep and I would recommend the same to you." She tried shutting the door again, but Garret reacted fast and pushed against it with his right hand. Anger flashed in her eyes, but he was brave enough to ignore that. He was here to do at least some damage control. He didn't need her to understand him. Not immediately. He knew she was angry, maybe even disappointed with him.

He didn't want to apologize or to justify himself. He did what had to be done. Had she been there with him, she probably would have agreed with him. Had she listened to him on the phone instead of heaping complaint over complaint on him, she would have understood. Now it was only important to make clear to her that it hadn't been anything personal and that there was no reason to be sulking any longer…

"Take your hand off my door", she hissed and didn't understand why he wanted to talk now – in the middle of the night, a few hours after she had left angrily. He should be able to guess how furious she was.

"You wanted answers…." He said instead of following her order.

"But not in the middle of the night!"

"Tomorrow?" Garret suggested surprisingly calm, but with a nervous glimmer in his eyes.

There had been so many nights already, where one of them had stood in front of the other one's door and had tried to wrest an apology from the other one. But today something was different; he had the feeling that she wouldn't let herself be manipulated so easily – there wouldn't be the usual make- up scene in the bedroom afterwards.

"Garret….I have work to do. I need to be in court in a couple of hours. You forgot that already? You brought work back for me from Mexico."

"For which I still haven't heard a thank you…."

Renee breathed sharply through her nose, which made him stop and his eyes took on an astonished expression. What had he said wrong now? It's not like he wanted exorbitant gratitude, just some acknowledgment. After all he had worked his ass off in Mexico in order to find a murderer they were hunting for five years now, risked his life and almost let the killer be shot out of revenge. He really felt bad about it and was very concerned about himself… And what had happened earlier….well, he hadn't thrown her out of his office on purpose….but apparently she was really pissed off about it.

"For what should I thank you? For the fact that I have to call a lot of people tomorrow so that the arrest is legal? For the fact that my credibility with the police and the guards at the borders in both countries is ruined? Or for the fact that I need to explain to the mayor why I can't control my employees?"

"I'm not your employee," Garret protested somewhat irritated. What he really hated lately was her permanent statement about who was senior to whom. And tonight it was the least thing he wanted to hear.

"Whatever," Renee was frustrated, while her eyes showed something completely else – she was very disappointed in him. It wasn't hurt pride, like usually in their quarrels, not hurt professional honor or the problems he caused her with his actions, it was only the disappointment in him and the way he had used her first small professional weakness against her. She only had agreed to his little adventure because he mattered to her, because she wanted to do him a favor… and this was the result now…a huge heap of broken glass and he didn't get it.

"Listen Renee, if you would only listen…a coffee for example would be great."

"I can't Garret. I just can't." She tried to look calm, tried to keep her cool, but her eyes just didn't manage to look at Garret in her usual superior manner. Garret hesitated he didn't want to push open the door, he didn't want to enter uninvited, just to tell her the words he had arranged carefully the whole night, while he had driven about aimlessly in his car. He could tell that she might not have minded had he taken the initiative….

Even though he wanted to, he was silent out of fear to say something wrong, and therefore Renee pushed the door shut with a regretful look on her face.

---

**A few days later**  
"Here you are, sir, your table." The waiter showed Garret to a small round table in a booth. Renee was already seated and looked at him calmly. In front of her lay a thick folder on which her hand rested, while her other hand – betraying her outward calmness – played nervously with her water glass.

Garret stepped towards her and their greetings were chilly just as they had expected. It hurt, Garret had to admit.

"Renee…."

"Have a seat." Renee pointed at the free chair. "I don't want to chitchat, Garret. So let's get started with business right away, okay?"

She had phrased it as a question, but Garret knew that he couldn't possibly give any answer but yes. So he nodded, ordered something to drink and asked himself why Renee had picked her favorite restaurant for a business talk, instead of coming to his office as usual. Usually…the word pained Garret. Since last week she hadn't stopped by the office a single time, but had sent one of her employees in order to pick up the reports. Court appointments were made via her secretary and Garret had the misgiving that what she had to discuss with him now would be bad since she had bit the bullet and met him in person.

Tightlipped she opened the folder and avoided looking at Garret. She didn't want him to see how bad she was doing, how the passed sleepless nights had left their mark on her. She didn't plan to be sabotaged by personal feelings and problems during this business meeting.

Renee pushed a few files across the table. "I need a few signatures concerning Mexico. And this." She put down another file in front of him. "…is a statement that you operated completely on your own account and against my instructions...what?" she interrupted her explanations and looked directly into Garret's face after all which had become darker and darker with every word she had said.

So far Garret hadn't given up the hope that all this had only been an excuse to meet with him, to talk it all over, so that things between them would be alright again and that they could pick up their relationship where they had left off before Mexico.

But with every further word from Renee he realized that this was not the case. Renee didn't seem to have the slightest interest anymore in what had animated him to do what he had done. Apparently all she wanted now was for him to take all the blame.

He had wanted to flare up, but when he looked directly into her eyes, that signaled him that he shouldn't overstep his boundaries, he also saw something that made him unsure of himself. Renee looked tired. Not only physically, something else lay in her eyes… something strange, something that he had never seen in her eyes before. He wasn't able to react like he had wanted to just a moment ago.

And Renee who felt that he saw something that he didn't know, lowered her gaze. He had seen her weakness and she felt uncomfortable.

Calmer than originally intended he finally said: "So this is what this is all about?"

"Excuse me?" Her eyes wandered back to him and this time there was no weakness to be found in them. Only the usual restrained anger.

"To tie me into knots. Do you even care for my version of the story? The reasons for my actions and decisions?"

"O, but I did, Garret." She hissed across the table. "About a week ago."

"But I tried to explain it to you…"

"No, you didn't. Except you think your weak attempt to visit me in the middle of the night counts, which you probably only did it in order to appease me so that you will end up in a familiar bed after you were abstinent for a week."

Garret winced. "That is not fair, Renee."

"Life isn't fair."

"I only wanted to…," Garret shrugged. It was hopeless. It wouldn't work. Not here where they were forced to stay calm and quiet, so that they wouldn't be heard in the whole restaurant. But he had the urge to yell all his frustration out and as he knew Renee, she probably had guessed it and that's why she had picked the restaurant and not the office. He breathed out rather sharply and leaned back in his chair. When she wanted to fight dirty, then she should get her wish.

"You only wanted to…what?" Renee glared at him furiously. "Convince me in that night that you had to do what you had to do? That you're a hero? You're a damn fool, Garret. Nothing else and you know that."

Taken off guard by her second vehement attack, Garret blinked and needed a moment to recover. But Renee used that moment for another attack.

"You're only interested in what you think is right. Okay, maybe the murderer would have escaped before the Mexican police would have done something, but I do think we would have gotten another chance to arrest him. We can't just waltz into a different country and play hero there, just because we feel like it. We also don't do everything in our power in order to maneuver a person – which we claim to like- into a difficult situation. And if we do we take an interest in the trouble she has to face and help so that it will be as little as possible. But some people just don't care. Some people just don't care about the career of other people." Renee felt how she talked herself into a frenzy, that the disappointment from last week still sat deeply in her and that tears of anger welled up in her eyes. She didn't want Garret to see those and tried to control herself. But it was hard to do while she talked about her frustration. "I risked a lot when I moved heaven and earth in order to have you sent to Mexico. And I risked even a lot more when I covered up that you hadn't come back…all I wanted were some words of explanation when you came back. But you preferred sending me away to telling me what your motives were. How nice that Jordan was there right away when I left."

"Renee, please." He felt that she was partially right with her accusations but the fact that she managed to work Jordan into this made him angry.

"What?" Her eyes widened in mock astonishment and her face had an innocent expression. "Did I not see right or was it just Jordan's ghost that floated past me into your office?"

"I needed all kinds of things in that night just not accusations and reproaches, okay?"

"Who says I would have done that? I have feelings, even though you seem to forget that from time to time. I was worried. And that has always been the most important thing in the whole story. You were in Mexico, just a few miles from a dangerous killer and the last words I heard from you before you disappeared for days were 'You're breaking up, Renee' Really very original, Garret." She made a face and started playing with her glass again. It wasn't easy for her to admit to him that he was really important to her. That she had been worried about him first and about her job second.

All of a sudden his hand was on top of hers; completely overwhelmed by that gesture she pulled her hand away. But he didn't say anything and didn't try taking her hand again. She cursed herself for it but there was nothing she was able to do about it now. It had happened and it had hurt.

"I see." He finally mumbled disappointed.

"You don't see anything." Renee hissed between tight lips. Was he disappointed because of her reaction or did he just feel sorry for himself?

All of sudden Renee got up. She had to leave. Had to get far away from him.

"I have to freshen up. Excuse me." She avoided looking at him and almost fled towards the restrooms.

On her way there she heard some turmoil in the entrance area of the restaurant, but she didn't care right now and didn't even glance in its direction when she fled to the restroom, slammed the door behind her and fell against the door. She closed her eyes, took a couple of deep breaths and wanted to be on a different planet. Then the tears started to flow, angry, furious, regretting tears, for which she was ashamed and which she had tried to keep back for such a long time. During every fight with Garret she had remained strong, had tried not to let him see how easy it was to hurt her and that she wasn't the tough woman she pretended to be as a lawyer…

---

When Renee had left the table so abruptly, Garret also had gotten up. He wanted to follow her, wanted to apologize to her, even though he thought that she played as much of a role in this whole drama as he did. He hadn't missed that this time a lot was different from the usual fights. She had seemed so fragile, so delicate. But then he got distracted by loud voices that moved from the entrance area towards the restaurant.

He looked in their direction and froze.

Three armed and masked men pushed the restaurant employees inside. Immediately panic broke lose. Someone screamed, a shot fell, but fortunately no one got hurt by it.

Garret didn't even try to find out what this robbery was about when he slowly inched away from his table.

The burglars spread out in the meanwhile. One stayed behind at the entrance, another one ran to the restrooms, in order to check if someone was in there and Garret's heart skipped a beat. But he came back alone. Wherever Renee was… she had stayed unnoticed. The third one walked between the tables and ordered all guests to put their jewelry, cash and other valuables in a bag.

"Sir? May I ask you for your watch, your cell phone and your cash money?"

Garret looked at the man. He couldn't see a whole lot, due to the ski mask, but the eyes glimmered cold and dashed nervously back and forth. He considered his chances to talk to him reasonably and before he was able to do something dumb, the robber repeated his request but this time with a blow of the gun's handle. Garret took of his watch, groped for a few dollar bills in his pockets and threw his cell phone in last.

The man moved on, in order to relieve a gold-decked older lady of her property.

Garret moved two more steps towards the restrooms.

When he finally reached them, he waited for a fortunate moment in order to slip into the woman's restroom.

It was quiet inside; one could only hear the gentle humming of the fan and the air conditioner.

"Renee?" Garret tried to say it as softly as possible and looked anxiously at the door behind him. When he didn't get a response, he raised his voice somewhat.

"Renee?"

In this moment another shot echoed through the restaurant…

**tbc**


	2. Chapter 2

Garret stood completely motionless for a moment, while he still was able to hear the shot echoing in his head. He hesitated...should he keep on looking for Renee or go back outside and check what had happened? Maybe they needed a doctor, even though he wasn't all that practiced anymore, he might be able to help someone for once who was still breathing.

But that's when he heard the noise out of the last stall and he knew that he was far too worried about Renee to waste anymore thoughts on potentially wounded people.

"Renee?" Carefully he walked to the last stall door and got scarred horribly, when the door swung open slowly shortly before he had reached it. However, an expression of relief spread over his face when he saw Renee. Even though this Renee didn't have all that much in common with the otherwise tough woman who had given him hell just a minute ago. Garret was ignorant from time to time but he wasn't completely oblivious. It hurt to know that she probably wanted someone else to keep her company right now, but, unfortunately, he didn't know how he could make it right again without looking like a complete dumbass.

"Thank heaven… why did you not answer me?"

Renee looked at him somewhat irritated and then her face took on a worried expression. "What do you think? After I heard the shot, I thought it would be best to not move at all. What's happening anyway?"

"Three men are just robbing the guests of your Italian restaurant."

"My Italian…" She looked at him questioningly, but just shook her head. Now it wasn't the time to get aggravated about needling comments. If he didn't like coming here, why had he never said anything? "A robbery?" She was shocked, but not enough to supress a joke about Garret and her situation. "And why are you here? Did you pick the wrong door by mistake?"

"In case you're interested…because I was worried about you." He snapped at her and hated himself for it at the same moment. He hadn't worried about her, just to continue exactly at that point where they had stopped earlier in the restaurant. More controlled he added: "One of the robbers came back here to check if there were more guests in the restrooms. When he came back without you, I got worried."

Actually she was touched by his openly shown worries about her, and had the circumstances for her being in the restroom in the first place been different, she probably would have reacted differently from how she finally did.

"About what? Why he hadn't gotten rid of the annoying DA for you?"

"Could we just take a break from all this until we get out of this situation?" Garret understood her reaction, but the situation had changed. They didn't sit in the restaurant anymore with a glass of good red wine and were fighting in a rather civilized manner which was unusual for them. No, they rather should be worried about a good ending for all this.

Renee had walked past Garret towards the sink and looked into the mirror. It was apparent why she had fled here. What a blessing waterproof mascara was, she thought bitterly and to hell with Garret, however, she still glanced at him in the mirror. He stood behind her and obviously didn't know what to say next.

Take a break? She thought. From what? From the mean remarks they liked to hurl at each other? Then pretty soon they wouldn't know what to say to each other within five minutes.

Looking at him made her insecure, though, and she wondered if his devastated expression made her happy or if she pitied him for it more than she pitied herself at the moment.

"Why did they not find you?" Apparently he didn't want to deal with the unusual situation and the weird mood between the two of them.

Renee sighed. Once again he didn't want to take the first step - but she certainly wouldn't take it either.

"I heard the shot and ran into the last stall. When the door opened and I heard steps, I pulled up my feet. What else could I have done?" Renee took a Kleenex out of her purse and tried to fix herself up as good as possible. "Obviously one of the robbers isn't all that smart. Otherwise he would have checked inside the stalls. And had I known that you were following me I would have escaped through the backdoor."

"Renee it's not funny more."

"Why not?" She looked at him again in the mirror and frowned shortly. He really seemed angry, but that didn't really stop her it just egged her on more. "Are you running out of smartass comments?" She didn't know why she wanted to keep on hurting him. He was here because of her. He had been worried, even though just a few moments ago they had hurled all kinds of words at each other, just not words of affection. That should mean something to her. Was she really as stubborn and grudge bearing as he sometimes accused her of being? Or was it her right to be as she usually was this time? After all she hadn't caused the robbery out there that had interrupted them. Just because three thugs decided to make the rich a bit poorer, the feelings she had for him had not changed. It didn't make her feel more forgiving or made her forget all of a sudden what an egoistic, ignorant son of a bitch Garret could be sometimes.

But when Garret hit the stall door with his fist instead of an answer, so that the door banged loudly against the wall and then bounced back, Renee winced so violently that her mascara fell with a soft clang into the sink.

Her eyes widened and she turned away from the mirror in order to finally look at him directly. She never had seen him like that. It even scarred her a little bit, but she managed the trick to not show it. Quite the opposite she even dared to completely ignore the reason for his violent outbreak.

"Don't you think that this reaction was a little bit risky and unconsidered with three armed criminals out there?"

"I…" Garret's facial expression stayed clouded, his eyes were narrowed and both his hands were balled to fists. When he took a step towards Renee, she automatically took one backwards.

Garret noticed which impression he had made on her and stopped. When he tried to relax a little he noticed that his hand hurt. He really was an idiot…a big one on top of that… instead of clarifying anything, he had scarred her now. She usually managed to get him to a 180, but it usually happened at a point where he was able to just throw her out of his office, or she left before he was able to say things that he would regret later.

But right here, right now, it wasn't possible for him to flee the room, except he planned to leave the restaurant in one of his own black body bags. He just had vented some and with that he had showed her a Garret of whom he was ashamed now. But it was too late to retreat. Maybe they would never get such an opportunity again to bring everything out into the open what had stayed unmentioned between them right from the beginning of their relationship.

"Goddammit Renee…listen to me just once." He finally said urgently, while Renee didn't know what to think about what was happening between them right now. Earlier in the restaurant it had felt right and justified to tell Garret clearly that he couldn't treat her as he pleased. This privilege she would happily leave to his co-workers, because she was a lot more than just that. It seemed like she was the woman that mattered to him. Even though he had a weird way of showing it.

She was taken off guard and wondered if she hadn't overstepped her boundaries a little earlier. But one thing she knew – right now he was in no position to criticize her. And her attitude was according to that conviction, but Garret wasn't intimidated by that.

"Will you listen to us? One of us takes the first step and the other one backs up immediately. One is offering a compromise, the other one automatically demands more. We will never get anywhere like this. We will turn in endless circles this way."

"Welcome to the club" She couldn't help it, even though she bit her tongue immediately. It just had to come out. Had she not tried to signal him that this was their problem in the last few months?

"It just can't keep on going like this."

"As far as I can remember I have never claimed anything else."

"What I want to say is, if we really mean something to the other one, shouldn't we show it at least a little bit?"

"Okay, this" She pointed at the door of the stall. "Was already frightening, but now you're really scaring me."

Garret smiled a little smile, which seemed insecure. He really had overreacted a little bit, but sometimes she just drove him crazy – on all accounts.

They just stood there for a moment in silence – each of them preoccupied with their own thoughts that dealt with the other one and the pros and cons of their relationship but this time there was a little bit more hope in this silence than usually. They only glanced into each other's eyes for a very short time before they lowered them in embarrassment, in order to look for a few words they could use to close the gap between them. However, a noise in front of the door distracted them from taking that famous first step.

Garret reacted instinctively and pulled Renee on her arm into the stall. He closed the door except for a tiny gap and saw the robber enter. They barely had made it!

The man walked into the middle of the restroom and listened into the silence. When he approached the stalls Garret closed the door entirely and hoped that the criminal would be dumb enough to not look too closely a second time. And indeed the steps moved away after a short period. When the door fell shut behind the robber, Renee exhaled relieved and Garret sank with his back against the stall door.

"That was close." Renee whispered and felt very uncomfortable in her skin. In here it was definitely far too narrow for two adults. Especially for two adults that behaved just like children, when it came to their relationship. Also closeness should be something beautiful but right now it was only uncomfortable and annoying.

Garret didn't seem like he was about to open the door. He stayed where he was and stroked his chin where by now a slight 5 o'clock shadow showed. He didn't look at her, his gaze was lowered to the floor and he avoided hers. Whatever was going on in his mind, Renee wanted to get out of this narrow stall – and that immediately!

"Could you please…" She pointed at the door.

"I think we will be safer in here."

"You don't seriously believe that? And don't even think you can use this to end the fight in an unfair manner. I'm really not in the right mood for that."

Garret looked up and grinned. It was a short-lived expression that relieved Renee, but it quickly changed to a serious expression. "You know Renee, when both of us would step aside from our principals just a little bit, just a tiny little bit…then it could work. Don't you think so?"

Renee's eyes took on a doubting expression. "I don't know…we're both very big egoists. Besides." She made an impatient gesture that included the whole stall. "I will certainly not discuss this with you in here."

"You don't have any choice…I won't let you out of here. And who knows when they will find us in here, in order to tell us when the situation has cleared up?" He managed to look at her challenging while an amused glitter lay in his eyes.

"That is mean, Garret." She hissed, but Garret could detect a small undertone of amusement in her voice.

"I know. But I have to take what I get. Besides didn't you just say earlier that life isn't fair?"

"O, come on Garret … you're better than that." Renee's facial expression clearly showed a first hint of annoyance again.

"See? This is exactly what I meant, Renee. We constantly try to hurt each other, because we can't admit that we like each other. Because it is easier that way, in case we would have to realize one day that it doesn't work out. It is easier to break up when one can say that one didn't really like the other one all that much but that the sex was quite okay."

"Quite okay?" Her indignation was real and Garret hoped that the first baby steps into the right direction that had been taken wouldn't immediately lead to regress again. "I think I just misheard something here."

"You know I didn't mean you and me with this. It was just…an example." He was a bit lost here. "What I meant with this you know yourself. We're both just far too headstrong and still…I mean…what I'm trying to say…" For crying out loud, could it really be so hard to apologize?

"Let me help you out here." Renee frowned. "You mean I'm only good and useful for one thing?" There was no trace of amusement in Renee's voice now and Garret was about to just give up.

"Why do we always have to make it so horribly hard for each other?" Garret responded exhausted. "That was not what I wanted to say with it. I meant that it is easier to call it quits like that."

"So you want to do that now in this very appropriate location?" Why didn't he just come to the point, instead of giving her so many opportunities to launch at him? It wasn't like she did it completely on purpose. It was one of her character traits and it almost happened on its own.

"Are you even listening to me?" Garret got a bit louder and his usual, aggravated sound was audible in his voice again.

"Of course, just your words reach me a bit jumbled."

"All I'm trying to do for the last past minutes is to apologize. But you really make it hard for me."

They looked each other square in the eyes and his grumpy look held up against her annoyed look until they both gave up their unusual "who-blinks-first" game and looked aside. He wanted to apologize? Had she heard that right? And she behaved so…narrow-minded?

"I understand your problems because of Mexico, but it has happened. I can't change it anymore and I would lie, would I claim now, that I would do everything differently had I a second chance. I just considered it as important to stay and help. I didn't think about the consequences…"

"You surprise me." Renee interrupted him amazed. This was actually an apology.

"I think…who knows what else will happen. Maybe we will never get a chance like this one ever again, where we can just talk it all over, that's why…you really should know, that I regret it immensely that I plunged head first into this adventure."

"I see." Renee lifted one eyebrow and looked at him amused. She had to smirk. "Um, does this mean that we will meet for a fresh cup of coffee every morning from now on, just as if we had a real, healthy relationship?"

Garret sighed. Had she really understood him? Or did she just not want to understand him? Could it be that she wasn't able to deal with his insight, his apology and his sudden honesty? What was so difficult about saying something nice for once?

"I don't know what that means, Renee. But it would be worth a try, wouldn't it?" He pushed himself away from the door and came a few centimeters closer to Renee, who, according to her facial expression, wasn't all too happy about this maneuver, but the only way to escape was to retreat between the stall wall and the toilet bowl, and she really didn't feel like that.

"I don't know what you're trying to do here, but I don't think it would be a wise idea, Garret." The last words came a bit slower and more stretched out over her lips, while Garret wasn't the least bit impressed with her reaction and just starred at her. After all the excitement since and because of Mexico, he registered again what he had like at her from the first day on when she had walked into his office – an interesting woman, with will power and a spirit to fight in her, who was deep down not as hard as she always pretended. It was a beautiful sight; even so it was overshadowed somewhat by her angry gaze.

"Why not…it is a long time ago that we did something nice for each other."

"O…I wonder - whose fault was that…" Renee, who slowly grew nervous, tried to dodge Garret, if not in a spactial way so at least verbally. Garret on the other hand enjoyed the fact that he apparently was capable of unsettling Renee now and then.

"Guilty on all accounts, counselor."

Renee tried to resist his gaze, which asked a silent question, that she didn't want to hear…after all they hadn't figured out anything yet, just because he was willing to apologize of his own account for once and a few things had been discussed, they still had a lot of problems in their relationship. But it was tempting to forget everything, push it aside, like they usually did and to concentrate on what they were good at and where they harmonized surprisingly well. It really was strange that in their every day life they weren't able to go a long time without misunderstandings, picking on each other and insults – the fact that they just didn't harmonize at all.

She didn't know why, maybe due to the extreme situation they were in, but all of a sudden she had to laugh. A noise that didn't only surprise Garret completely, a laughing Renee was as rare as a snow in California. Of course there had been moments like this between them before...but by now he was able to count those on one hand.

Garret was definitely convinced that it suited her very well. It banished the small wrinkles of sorrow around her eyes, took away the hard traces around her mouth and made her eyes glow warmly.

"I'm sorry." Renee pressed out between a new fit of laughter.

"What's so funny?"

"Everything." Renee tried to control herself and just ended up laughing suppressed again. "I mean, don't you think it is funny to discuss our problems right here? In a tiny, narrow toilet stall?"

"Who said anything about discussing?" Garret was now very close and caused Renee more uncomfortable feelings than nice feelings.

"I…the moment is rather bad, don't you think?" She had herself under control again, even though the idea still made her smile amused. Still, Renee squeezed by him, with doing so she managed the artistic trick to not touch the toilet bowl with any part of her very expensive suit, and reached for the door knob.

"I don't think so." His hand gently lay on top of hers and stopped her from opening the door. She looked back over her shoulder and shook her head.

"Garret, please don't…I don't think this is such a good idea and then...HERE?"

Garret didn't see any problem, at least not in the moment. He had thanks to his midlife crises and Maggie desecrated an elevator and his office…he had to admit that this situation was somewhat unusual and definitely not one of his numerous phantasies he had about Renee, but one had to be creative and how long they had to stay here no one knew.

"You have a choice, either we discuss our relationship until it is dead or we forget this unnecessary fight!"

"You know what? We forget the fight and I forget really fast that you actually tried to seduce me in a public toilet stall." She shook off his hand, opened the door and fled towards the sink area. Garret followed her slowly and obviously had troubles suppressing a grin.

"What?" She looked directly at him in the mirror, while she washed her hands. She had touched too much of those unknown, cold and dirty tiles while they were debating in there.

"You're afraid…"

"I'm not."

"O, yes, you are."

"How do you know what I feel!" She turned the water off and turned around to face Garret. In her eyes lay a vacuous expression, but Garret wasn't mislead by that. He approached her even further – and Renee stayed where she was.

"Because I know you better than you think." Now they were only separated by a couple of inches and there was no way for her to flee – already she had backed up all the way to the sinks and felt one of them press uncomfortably in her back.

"If you think so…"Renee started sharply and all of sudden she fell silent. Did she really want to keep on discussing, fighting, making accusations? Or wasn't it a lot easier to just forgive him? This one time? It was very tempting….

While Garret was still hesitant about how far Renee was ready to give in to all this, he saw a glint in her eyes, which was answer enough for him. They had said everything that there was to say, they had made their arguments clear, defended them, without anyone of them being the loser here...and while they stood so close to each other, their heads moved forward automatically, a smile appaeared on Renee's lips, that Garret loved so very much, that made her face glow and showed the woman behind the hard front. She had her eyes closed and Garret was already able to feel her warm breath on his skin – when a loud bang was audible outside – and the lights went off!


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3

Excited voices were audible in the restroom from outside, steps tramped by the door, some unintelligible orders were shouted – but Garret and Renee didn't notice any of these things. In their worlds nothing revolved around panic, robbers, power outage at the moment – because when her soft, warm lips met his rough ones, their worlds lit up in their own colorful lights.

It was a first delicate contact, without desire, without urging, without demands. A first approach after so many days of giving each other the silent treatment, avoiding each other and fighting.

Slowly Renee began to appreciate this reoccurring way of their reconciliations, when all of sudden Garret's hands were everywhere on her well-formed body, which he felt up as if he had never had a chance to do that before and by doing this he distracted her from all her thoughts. She allowed it to happen and enjoyed the awakening of a long missed feeling – butterflies in her stomach.

She would have never thought, that after all the trouble, there were still these feeling for Garret in her...but it was beautiful to discover them anew.

He was hungry, had missed her, not only in the physical way - of what she had accused him - even though he had to admit that his desire would not have said ‚no' right now, had she given herself completely over to him...

All the anger of the past few weeks was forgotten – his problems, her authority, her problems with his constant undermining of said authority, the fight about the Jefferson case, her problems with Jordan, the disastrous kiss with Lily, her attempts to bring his staff onto her side – all things that they gotten themselves into after their "trip" to North Carolina for the execution-story, things they had known would lead to problems – sooner or later. However, both would have had preferred a later.

But even that didn't matter anymore…

The kiss seemed to last an eternity, an eternity of which Renee hoped it would never end, that she would never have to regret it.

When the light came back on, they both didn't notice it.

The kiss between them became all of a sudden more urgent, more daring… Garret had his arms wrapped around her, he pushed himself close to her, wanted to feel her with every part of his body. He felt her warmth, her softness, felt that she didn't resist him, that she took him like he was in this moment and gave him what he wanted.

Her hands tried to find some footing on the sinks, when Garret became more and more thronging and when his hands left her back and started to nestle impatiently on the buttons of her jacket…Renee hesitated, her body become stiff just for a millisecond, but that was enough for Garret to stop. He looked at her inquiring and questioningly and she had to admit to herself that she wanted more…here, in this for her completely absurd location, where every second someone could enter…armed robbers or a rescuing SWAT-Team…but she was also afraid of what would happen afterwards – or tomorrow or in a week…

"Don't you want this?" He asked insecure, with a look in his brown eyes that reminded Renee of the Garret with whom she had once fallen in love.

"Garret…" She took a step aside, broke free from his closeness and walked towards the door. Immediately she felt less pressured. "I don't know what's happening out there, but I think we should check on it. It is not right to forget in here what could happen outside while we…have fun."

"That's all I want to have right now." Garret came after her. "It is the most beautiful way of saying 'I'm Sorry'". Amused he rose one eyebrow and grinned at her sheepishly. Yes and very practical, too, Renee thought sarcastically, completely without using words. "I really don't care right now if the building is stormed or not." Garret added.

Renee drew breath in order to say something back, but he was quicker. He took the last steps towards her, accepted the fact that Renee drew aside surprised, before her retreat was stopped by the cold tile wall and ignored the begging look in her eyes that asked him to shift a gear lower.

He was so close to her that the tips of their noses almost touched and while he lifted his hand in order to stroke her cheek gently, Renee felt her last hint of resistance break. She followed the movement of his hand with her cheek and closed her eyes. This was answer enough for Garret…his hand slid down her neck, pulled her to him and tried to kiss Renee again. But this time she tried to resist one more time verbally, but Garret put one finger of his free hand on her lips…

"Shhh… Renee?"

"What?"

"Shut up." And in order to enforce his words, he pressed his lips hard on hers and felt how she finally just relaxed and enjoyed how his tongue filled her mouth. This time she allowed his hands to open her buttons, leaned against the wall, closed her eyes again and tried to picture that nothing else but a peaceful dinner had proceeded this, a romantic afternoon, no fight – she tried to picture the fact that after this everything would be better, she tried to push away the thoughts that this would never be the case…

Garret felt that she had tensed up again, that she didn't let herself go all the way, that something held her back from giving herself over to him, he tried not to think about why this was the case, but concentrated on giving her some of the warmth and tenderness that they gave only rarely to each other these days…

His kisses covered her neck, stayed at her ear lobes, stimulated her as usual, made her whimper involuntarily and made her finally find the relaxation that she had looked for. Her hands grabbed his head, held on to it when he wandered down between her breasts and pushed him harder against her. His hands wandered downwards, stroked tenderly over her curves, stopped right above her skirt's hem, then pushed it up a little, while Renee moaned under his caresses and pushed herself up on the wall, squirmed under his hands and started to pull his shirt out of his pants impatiently…- it was so much easier to just accept it when one didn't think.

A well-known ringing sounded – loud and clear – directly between the two of them.

Renee looked at Garret with a mixture between regret, horror and surprise.

Garret himself didn't know if he wanted to laugh – a bitter, disappointed laugh – or cry. His hands still rested on her small, delicate breasts, which made him feel his erection painfully, and which gave her a comfortable, well-known twitch right in the middle of her body…but she was only able to stare at him motionless, while the nerve-wrecking ringing echoed in the silence between them…

She inhaled sharply when she finally reached behind her and clipped the cell phone from her skirt. She turned it to silent immediately and glanced at the display – her office…

"You had a cell phone the entire time? One that was turned on?" Garret didn't know if he wanted to be amused and therefore laugh about it or furious and distressed. "I mean…can you imagine what could have happened when that stupid thing would have started ringing earlier when…"

"I know" Renee interrupted him angrily. "Should I have handed it over to you right when you came in here? And then what?"

"Then I would have called the police." Garret rolled his eyes, drew his hands away from her body and took one step back.

Did it all start right from the beginning again? Just because of a cell phone?

There they stood – Renee with her vibrating cell phone in her hand and the indecisiveness if she should answer it or not; Garret with an angry facial expression, which was almost distraught – while both of them hadn't wanted anything else but to finally make love, to get rid of their timidity and their clothes –

She had to make a decision…

"Please don't" Garret asked her, but, unfortunately he knew that this plea was in vain. Right that moment Renee finally answered the call.

Garret turned away from her, he was disappointed and hurt. While he started buttoning up his shirt again and tucking it back into his pants, he took some steps further into the restroom. A cold shower would have the same effect as her damn cell phone that always seemed to start ringing at the wrong moment.

Renee managed to listen, while she fixed her hair with the one hand and straightened out her skirt with the other.

"Yes, I see, please hold a second. – Garret? The robbery was in the news. My secretary knew about our meeting. They were worried, but didn't dare to call until the restaurant has been stormed. It is over. There is no more danger…."

Garret turned back to her and Renee didn't like the look on his face very much. She didn't feel like starting from the beginning again. This had definitely been their longest foreplay ever. She rolled her eyes because of him, looked down on her cell phone and made another decision. Sometimes one just had to bite the bullet… "Lizzy? Yes…yes...I…excuse me? No, I'm sorry…" She gave Garret a careful taxing look, and then she grinned. "No…I can't hear you anymore. Some static noise, yes...You're breaking up." She just hung up on the caller, and still starred at Garret with an amused sparkle in her eyes, while his grumpy look gave away to a broad grin.

He relaxed again, looked at her almost admiringly, then nodded appreciative and came back to her. "You're a damn cold bitch."

"O, you know… I had a real good teacher, and now…Garret...just shut up and kiss me finally…."

THE END


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